


A Kiss to Build A Dream On

by _hiving (antmaiden)



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Angel Beats! AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-27
Updated: 2014-06-27
Packaged: 2018-02-06 11:25:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1856335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/antmaiden/pseuds/_hiving
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Say, Jason. What would it take for you to pass on?”</p><p>When he heard the question flied out of Nico’s mouth, Jason’s first instinct was to hunt Leo down and <i>throttle</i> him for spewing out his supposedly-discreet confession a few days ago.</p><p>  <i>That he miiiiight be in love with Nico di Angelo and he knew he would immediately move on to another world if he was allowed to love him, and getting his feeling reciprocated.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	A Kiss to Build A Dream On

**Author's Note:**

> Angel Beats! is an anime about a high school acting as a limbo for those who have died, where students learn to give up any lingering attachments they still have from life before passing on. This work doesn't follow the canon Angel Beats! plot, only taken place in the same universe. And yes, everyone are dead people in this, but their deaths happened off-screen and don't have direct impact on the plot, so I decided to skip the archive warning. 

 

 

“Say, Jason. What would it take for you to pass on?”

When he heard the question flied out of Nico’s mouth, Jason’s first instinct was to hunt Leo down and _throttle_ him for spewing out his supposedly-discreet confession a few days ago.

_That he miiiiight be in love with Nico di Angelo and he knew he would immediately move on to another world if he was allowed to love him, and getting his feeling reciprocated._

His logic overweighed his instinct though.

“Why do you ask?” He asked back instead, analyzing the perimeter. It could be that Nico had been told about his secret (as what highly probable, considering Leo was kind of a jerk) and was trying to coax the confession out of him. But Jason had known Nico well enough during his almost three months attending this high school of limbo to say that Nico wasn’t that kind of person. He wouldn’t provoke things out of people when he knew they didn’t want to, mainly because Nico, too, was a very closeted kind of guy.

Maybe Nico still was clueless about his Mt. Everest-sized crush, and the question was just a way to break the dull silence. Classroom cleaning duty, after all, was the most boring activity _ever_. If it wasn't for Nico being his partner, Jason would’ve sneaked off already.

Nico shrugged. “Just asking,” he answered casually, and continued to sweep the back of the room. He didn’t prod any further, most likely translating Jason’s back talk as a defensive move and respected his boundaries. Jason thanked whoever up there who kept Leo’s mouth shut, but bemoaning the fact that Nico had stopped talking. He liked hearing Nico’s voice.

God, he fell for the guy _so damn hard_ , didn’t he?

“What about you?” He blurted out before he could stop himself. Nico glanced up at him, impassive eyes boring into him in a way that made Jason felt like he was being examined inside out. He tried not to fidget awkwardly.

And then, Nico averted his gaze to the open windows, directing his words to the sluggishly moving cloud outside. “I… I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it, actually. And I found not only one—but a few things that I really, really want.”

Jason couldn’t say he wasn’t surprised with this admittance. While he was proud to claim he was in the small group of persons Nico would actually confide in, Jason hadn’t gotten the privilege to hear something _this big_. In a world where the reason you existed was because you still have attachments that prevent you from going to heaven (or _hell_ , but Nico was just too good for that), revealing your unfulfilled business was like revealing the very core of your being. Immediately Jason felt honored, but also a bit scared.

“Oh? What are they?” He kept his tone neutral, not too eager, not too dismissive.

“Well, for once, I wish I could give Hazel a safer home to live.”

It was mentioned once and never brought up again, that Nico’s family hadn’t been part of the cleanest, innocent citizens. He didn’t specifically state it, but the fact that he had apparently died of gunshot (along with his other sister, Bianca, but she wasn’t chained here), had given Jason a vague idea of what kind of family Nico used to belong to.

“I want to live a peaceful life too,” Nico’s voice was quiet, wistful. “And falling in love, and… c-coming out to my family....”

“You’re gay?!” Jason exclaimed without thinking, wanting to dump his head into the mop bucket afterwards. His brain, one that had nursed on his lovey dovey feeling, had meant it to sound excited; but his stupid mouth made him sound like a mocking jerk.

Nico, who was already blushing, turned even redder, his face scrunched in defensive scowl. “Not gay, bisexual, that’s all!” He threw his head away, obviously embarrassed. Jason felt like a huge shit.

“Sorry,” he apologized, leaning his mop to one of the tables and inching toward him. “I didn’t mean it like that. I think it’s great, Nico.”

“Don’t sugarcoat it,” Nico sighed, almost exasperated. “Even if you’re all okay with it—and I don’t need your acceptance anyway—being bi sucks. Half the time I don’t know if I like guys or girls or if I just want a solid cuddling partner.”

Jason chuckled at that. “I think that’s how everyone feels, be it they’re bi or not. Besides, isn’t being bi widening the chance of falling in love without prudence?”

“That’s a pretty romantic way to see it. You really hang out with Piper too much, aren’t you?” Nico shook his head, sending him a lopsided smile. Jason thought it was cute. No, scratch that, he thought Nico was so beautiful like this, and he kind of want to kiss him breathless.

“So you would move on if you can make Hazel live a safer life, and _you_ too, live a peaceful life; and falling in love, and coming out?” Jason folded one finger with each wish. “I think you have to let go of the first two, though. You’re dead already.”

Nico let out a heavy, long breath, his eyes downcast. “I know. I just wish I could do that, you know, back when I was alive.”

It wasn’t fair, Jason think, how so many people had died too young.

“And then there’s still the need to come out to your family, and fall in love. The come out part would be a helpless case too, unless you make a few adjustments and be content with just coming out, period, which you just did to me.”

“Well, I was hoping it to be a lot more _dramatic_.” Nico’s eyes glinted playfully. “Like maybe I and my father would have a shouting match at the dinner table, and I’d get overemotional and weep on Bianca’s shoulder for hours afterwards with Hazel hugging my back. And my step mother would make it a big deal, calling the priest and splattering me with holy water or something. Everyone would be tense, fights prickle out of simple things, but in the end—in the end they would still love me.”

The last words let out in a sigh. Not a dejected one, the kind that you would give out when imagining something you know would never happened. It was fond, coated with certainty, as though Nico knew that was exactly what would happen if only he lived a bit longer. At that time Jason was relieved, knowing that, while Nico’s family was as dysfunctional and dangerous as a family could probably be, while Nico was never safe, at least he was happy. At least, he wasn’t trapped in this in-between world because his life had been miserable.

“Wow, that kind of drama was hard to feat,” Jason said, smiling. Nico chuckled.

“Nah, it’s okay. I could pass it on with just coming out to you. But even then, I still need to fall in love…” he paused, hesitated, eyes flickered to other direction and Jason missed it already. “…and be loved back, I guess.”

Jason hummed at that. A soft breeze sneaked into the vaguely lemon-scented classroom, ruffling Nico’s long dark strands. Outside, the football club had started their training session; their shouts reached his ears, riding the wind.

“I think we mostly of want the same thing,” he hushed out slowly, and before Nico had the time to say anything, Jason leaned down and kissed him.

The kiss didn’t feel magical, the wind didn’t pick up around them and there weren’t sparkly lights appeared randomly from the place where their lips met (like it happened in so many Disney movies or stories with a setting in pseudo realm like this).

It did, though, giving Jason an explosion of satisfaction, a spread of thick syrup pumped from his heart that made him giddy. As their mouth devour each other and the odd feeling of Nico’s tongue meeting his, everything zoomed out of focus except them, Nico’s hands reached to his shoulder, his hand messing with Nico’s hair.

He thought, if he was going to disappear after this kiss ended, then he better make it long. A kiss to last a lifetime. But then they pulled out, a strand of drool connecting their mouth, Nico chuckled awkwardly when wiping it with the back of his wrist. Jason was still there, somewhat dumbfounded that he was _still there_ , wondering if he had been wrong all along about his last wish.

Or if Nico didn’t love him back.

But then Nico smiled up at him, tame crimson on his cheekbones and the tip of his ears. “That was nice,” he murmured, in a content lilt that sounded a bit like a sleepy kid. The way his eyes sparkled as they looked with his _killed_ away all his doubts, and Jason decided that fuck it, if this wasn’t the answer of his lingering, unfinished question, then he didn’t want to search for another answer. Loving Nico and being loved back was all he consciously wanted, and it was enough for him. Even if he wouldn’t be able to pass on, it was enough for him.

As long as Nico was with him, he was living in paradise already.

But would Nico stayed for him?

“Nico.” He gathered the smaller boy in his arms, diving his nose into his hair, inhaling slowly. “Would you stay here with me?”

A selfish request, indeed.

Nico looked up at him in puzzlement. “What? Why should we stay? We’ve fulfilled our dreams.” His eyes widened a bit. “Or you still haven’t fulfilled them all? What can I do to help?”

“No.” Jason frowned, unable to understand either. “I am pretty sure my entire wish is to be loved by you.” Nico blushed hard at that. “But—I still can’t pass on. There’s still something… Maybe—maybe I want _more_ than your love. I want you too, beside me. Forever.”

And he realized that indeed, he couldn’t let go because he was afraid he wouldn’t find his love again.

There was a thick silence, and Jason was afraid Nico’s love for him decreased a bit because he was so, so selfish.

But then Nico grasped his hand. “Hey. Let’s make a promise, then.”

“Promise for what?”

“That if… if we move on, we do it together.” He tightened his grip to make his point. “And no matter what happen, we’ll always find each other again. Okay?”

Jason looked at him, this precious being he just found and about to lose. But if Nico dared to promise such thing, then Jason trusted him enough to believe it would be true.

“Pinky swear?” He grinned, wiggling his pinky fingers in front of Nico. The boy snorted, but intertwined their fingers anyway.

“Pinky swear.”

When Annabeth checked the room a few hours later, red tint of sunset coloring the half-cleaned floor, she found nothing but a bucket full of water, a mop leaning on one of the tables, and a fallen broom in the back of the room. 

 

* * *

 

In the outskirt of Venice, where the roads aren’t flooded with tourist and the cafés aren’t _disgustingly steep_ , there lives a boy with lovely doe eyes that charms every mother and a laugh that takes every girl to their knees. Except his sister, who simply rolls her eyes and mercilessly cut his hair short even when he insists on keeping them, to give him a “starving artist” look, he says. His passion is painting, and he has a fond spot on drawing couples kissing.

In the outskirt of Venice, where the roads aren’t flooded with tourist and the cafés aren’t _disgustingly steep_ , there walks a young man of foreign country, enjoying the peace of the suburb with a content smile permanent on his face. His eyes are blue as the summer sky today, his hair blond like the sun but it is hidden under a baseball cap. He sees a young man painting in one of the cafés terrace, a fond look on his beautiful face as he draws a couple deep in passion.

“ _Such a gorgeous painting, Signore_.”

If someone asked, they would say that this single, simple comment is what brings them together, how the next year finds them moving in the same apartment in Rome.

But you know it all started way long before.

Their names are different, but they do keep their promise.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Comments and feedback are very much welcomed.


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